


Something There

by ericsonclan



Series: OG World [51]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Apples, F/M, First Meetings, Friendship, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:35:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26365795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: Willy is excited to finally meet another kid his age and get to know her.
Relationships: Allison/Willy (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: OG World [51]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815361
Kudos: 8





	Something There

**Author's Note:**

> (by Laura)

Willy was excited. Like stupid excited. There was another kid at Ericson! They hadn’t had any kids here since Clementine and A.J. had arrived and that was _years_ ago. He got to see kids in caravans every once in a while, but they never stayed for long. Here were two new people though and one of them looked to be the exact same age as him!

He looked over at the girl with curiosity. Her features were somewhat similar to James’: tanned skin, straight black hair… but the look in her eyes was unlike his entirely. Her dark brown eyes were firm and set with purpose. Her gaze never wavered from her friend Renata’s back as they continued toward the orchard at the back of the school. She didn’t look like one to strike up a conversation. Never mind that – Willy could start it all on his own.

“So, Allie-”

“It’s Allison,” The girl’s words were curt; she didn’t even bother looking his direction.

“Your friend called you Allie,”

“Only she gets to do that,” Allison fell silent, clearing not interested in continuing though.

Willy wasn’t giving up that easily though. “My name’s Willy. Not sure if you caught it back there. I’ve lived my whole life here! Well, since I was like 4. I don’t really remember anything from before that, so it doesn’t count,”

Allison didn’t reply. She seemed to be listening in on the conversation Renata was having with Violet and Prisha. That wasn’t interesting though, just her trying to recall the last time she’d gotten to eat an apple.

Willy wracked his brain for something he could say that would impress Allison. She and Renata seemed pretty happy when they heard about blowing up the Delta ship. Maybe he could talk more about that? “Hey, do you like bombs? I’ve been working on some down in the basement!”

That seemed to catch Allison’s attention. She looked over at Willy this time. “Really?”

“Yep! I have them stockpiled in case we ever need to ward off an invasion. Luckily we haven’t, so that means we’ve got a ton of them! I’ve built all kinds: landmines, smoke bombs, some prototypes of flash grenades…

“We’re here,” Violet declared, stopping in front of the handful of fruit trees they’d been able to acquire over the last few years. “We’ll just need a few to pick for dinner. Don’t pick them if they’re not ripe,”

The group quickly got to work. It clearly wasn’t a job that required five people but they dispersed among the trees, picking off the trees and from the ground. Willy followed Allison and Renata to one of the apple trees. He wished the trees were big enough to climb so he could show off how good he was at scaling trees, but he’d been told several times there was absolutely no climbing on the fruit trees till they were older. Jumping up, he snatched the highest apple he could find, offering it to Allison with a smile. She held out the basket for him to drop it in, stone-faced.

Her friend Renata seemed to actually show more interest in conversation. “So, Willy was it? Tell me a bit about yourself. What sort of awesome talents do you have?”

“Well, Prisha says she and I are our resident inventors. I like to make whatever sort of cool stuff I can to help out the school, like weapons or tools to help us hunt… I even get to make prosthetics sometimes, like Clem’s!”

Prisha and Violet shot Willy a warning look. Oops. He always forgot he wasn’t supposed to share stuff like that with strangers. But Renata and Allison were going to stay at the school, right?   
Clementine said they could stay the night. That’s how she and A.J. had started out at Ericson and now they’d been here for years.

Renata whistled. “Prosthetics, eh? That’s impressive. I bet it took you a long time to figure out how to make those right!”

“Yeah, it did. My first couple tries were total ass, but now Clem can walk around like it’s nothing! I could make you a prosthetic too,” Willy offered, noticing Renata’s missing ear.

Allison gave him a strange look.

Willy winced. Now that he thought about it, that was a pretty dumb suggestion. What sort of use was a wooden ear?

Renata cocked her head to one side. “Huh, y’know, I never thought about it, but a fake ear could be pretty cool. I could take it off like it was nothing and freak people out! Oooh, or I could get fantasy ears, like a furry werewolf ear or a pointy elf one!”

Willy grinned. It was nice of Renata to play along even if she was most likely joking.

The group continued to harvest fruit for another few minutes before they stopped, having more than enough for tonight’s meal. After hauling out front, they were informed by Prisha that they should peel a certain amount of the apples for dinner. Violet and Prisha seemed hesitant to give any sort of knives to Renata and Allison, but there were some old butter knives Omar had lying around that would do the job just fine. The group settled down around the couches, the ancient springs and mildewed fabric sagging under their weight.

Allison stabbed her apple in annoyance, clearly ticked off by the dull knife she’d been given.

Willy smiled at her sympathetically. He hated whenever he got treated like a baby too. Suddenly his eyes lit up with inspiration. Why not make a game out of it? Maybe then Allison would have fun. “Hey, Allison, I bet I can peel more apples than you in a minute!”

Allison’s eyes hardened for a second before a glint of competition entered them. “You gonna level the playing field and give me a real fucking knife?”

Renata chuckled, elbowing the teen. “Aaw, c’mon Allie! With your skills, Willy’s gonna need the handicap just to stand a chance!”

Allison rolled her eyes at the compliment but nodded.

“Prisha, can you time us?” Willy asked excitedly.

“Alright, but I want to see good peeling being done by both of you. Sloppy work will get points off,”

The teens nodded. After a few seconds to get set up, the competition began. Both Willy and Allison moved with lightning speed, their cuts clean and precise. Even though Allison had a much duller blade, she was holding her own surprisingly well. Willy had to stay entirely focused to keep pace with her.

The apples flew from their hands into their respective bowls, the unpeeled ones disappearing bit by bit until there was one left and only seconds to go. Both of them reached out for the final apple at the same time. Allison’s hand shot out, the butter knife slamming against the bowl mere centimeters from Willy’s hand. Willy shot back with a yelp, clutching his hand protectively.   
Allison plucked up the apple and raced through the peeling in a matter of seconds.

“And that’s time!” Prisha declared. The apples were counted by Violet. It only took a minute before the totals were reached.

“It’s a tie,” Violet declared. “Willy got one more, but it doesn’t count cause he clearly panicked at the end,” She held up a peel that had chunks of apple dangling all over it.

Renata clapped enthusiastically. “That was awesome! Sophie always said you guys had fun here. I’m glad we’re getting to see it firsthand. Right, Allie?”

Allison simply nodded, her gaze trained on her bowl of finished apples.

Willy held out his hand. “Good job. I thought for a second there you were gonna stab me, but I guess you missed,”

“It was a scare tactic. I never miss,”

So she hadn’t been aiming for him after all. That meant she had fun too!

“We’d better put these in some water before Omar gets back,” Prisha rose from her spot handing Violet a bowl before picking up one for herself.

“I can help too!” Renata declared, grabbing Willy and Allison’s bowls and scurrying forward. “Just lead the way!”

That left Willy and Allison alone for a moment. Willy was trying to think of something to say when Allison spoke first.

“Give me your knife,”

“What?” Willy looked up at her in shock, his hand instinctively clasping the handle tighter. This was Mitch’s old knife. “Why?”

“I’ll give it right back,”

Willy searched Allison’s eyes. She held his gaze steady for the first time, unwavering. Before he could have second thoughts or they ran out of time, Willy thrust it forward.  
Allison took the knife in her hands, weighing its heft. She then proceeded to weave the blade between her fingers, flipping and twisting it with a graceful ease. She paused with the blade between her fingertips, flipping it one last time before handing it over to Willy. “That’s a good knife,”

“Thanks,” Willy cradled the knife in his hand, his thumb running across the dull edge. “It was my brother’s,”

“He’s dead then?”

Willy’s throat tightened at the memory. “Yeah… Delta got him,”

“And you got them back,” Allison nodded thoughtfully.

“Yeah, we did,” Willy paused, unsure whether to continue. “We named the bomb Mitch’s Masterpiece after him,”

“Sick,”

Willy looked over at Allison in confusion.

“Sick is a good thing,”

“Oh, gotcha! Sick!” Willy grinned at the girl, his snaggleteeth prominent.

Before they could continue, Violet, Prisha and Renata were back, Renata chatting animatedly about a time a dead bird had fallen into she and Allison’s campfire in the middle of cooking dinner. The teens fell silent, letting Renata continue the tale. It was a pretty good one; Willy could tell she was gonna be a lot of fun to have around.

All of a sudden A.J. appeared behind Willy, tapping him quickly on the shoulder. “It’s your turn on watch,”

Willy glanced over at Allison, wondering if he should ask if she’d like to join him on the watchtower. She seemed to be enjoying the story though, nodding along almost imperceptibly as Renata told it. There’d be time to chat at the dinner table. Scampering toward the watchtower, Willy felt a flare of excitement bubbling up within him. He’d made a new friend.


End file.
